Okay. I know we are tennis fanatics one and all, but having sometimes contributed to posts in the past on football related threads, I thought it might be good to have an actual members club where we could discuss our teams, countries, particular leagues and divisions, Champions League, EUFA cup, fave players (past and present); basically, anything on football (or 'soccer' as it's known to you Americans and Australians) and your team... your hopes, thoughts, frustrations, triumphs, etc, etc.

Anyway, if you want to talk football and join up, just tell me your name and your team/league, and you're in... like so:

1. Ross K... Tottenham Hotspur (English Premier League)...

Right... as a topic to kick us off, how about your thoughts on how your team is shaping up for the new season (especially as regards new signings and other developments.)

For myself, as a Spurs supporter, not for the 1st time in my life, I'm a little mystified and puzzled by our behaviour :-? . Primarily I'm talking about letting Robbie Keane go and not replacing him with a forward of comparable renown... Okay, I'm very happy with the acquisition of Luca Modric... Giovani Dos Santos sounds promising.... David Bentley also undoubtedly has quality. But when you're allowing the likes of Robbie Keane to be sold to Liverpool, not to mention the always impressive Steed Malbranque being ditched after 1 season (why??!!)... replacing Paul Robinson with the Bruce Grobbelar-esque Gomez... and are still so obviously depleted not only up front (specially if Berbatov also goes), but also in terms of a more defensive central midfielder and definitely in central defence, well, it's a bit hard to comprehend. Also, Tottenham seems to have a black hole whereby we buy all these players who are swallowed up into the reserves or are quickly injured for vast lengthy periods (Kevin Prince-Boeteng? Ricardo Rocha? Gareth Bale? Abel Tarrabat 'the new Zidane', we were told?) On the other hand, last season I was very impressed with our Spanish coach Juande Ramos, who certainly gives the impression of inspirational, innovative and strong-minded leadership, so I suppose you have to have a bit of faith in what's going on (although I think my 'faith' might be strengthened with the signings of Arshavin, David Villa and a handful of Spanish internationals, Samuel Et'to, at least 2 worldclass central defenders to cover for King and Woodgate when they get horrendously injured which will doubtless be in about week 2 of the new season! :roll::smile: )

Annnnyway... how have other people's teams been shaping up pre-season?... are you feeling confident?

you call yourself a football fanatic and call uefa EUFA??? hehe :mrgreen:

Malakas-Panathinaikos (Greek League)

but though I follow CL and UEFA,I have given up watching the regional championship because I am sick and tired of the hooligans,the bad quality and the teams winning championships in courts!I barely watch anymore the team transfers etc,and only watch the big derbies.So,sorry but can't contribute any more.

I'm very happy! We've not had a settled right back for years but Bosingwa has every chance. Deco is just what we need to add a bit of finesse, we've still got the power, pace and efficiency that makes us brilliant.. but now we have a bit of flair to break teams down too.

Anelka is also on fire, scoring 4 in a 5-0 win against Milan says alot. Di Santo also looks like he can be a world class striker in the next few years, the midfield is the strongest anywhere in Europe (I think even Man Utd fans have to admit to that) and we still have a fantastic defence with Ivanovic (the new Vidic apparently) able to play anywhere so i'm happy.

As for your Tottenham, I know what you mean. You seem to be after the same kind of players! Modric, Dos Santos, Arshavin etc.. They're all attacking midfielders/second strikers. I also don't think you've solved the problems you had with the defence, last year you had no problem scoring goals.. but you kept letting them in! Losing Keane (and possibly Berbatov) will drastically reduce the goals and the defence is still very weak when King isn't there (which is pretty much all the time these days)

Who are people backing to get the 5th spot/possibly break into the top 4?

I'm thinking Aston Villa.. they've really sured up the defence and with Agbonlahor, Young, Carew etc.. grabbing the goals, Reo-Coker and Sidwell in midfield.. they probably have the best first XI of the rest but i'm still not confident they have a deep enough squad to cope for a whole season.

"Come on then!... Calling all you AC and Inter fans!... Barca and Real supporters!... Bayern supporters!... Ajax fans!... Marseilles lovers!... Wherever you are in the world... whoever you are... THE TALK TENNIS FOOTBALL CLUB NEEDS YOU!!!... come and join!"

Not fussed with the lack of signings, although an out and out striker like Huntelaar. Other then that, the squad is fine although I'd rather have someone who pwns like Hamit Altintop than Fletcher or O'Shea as a midfield option.

Funniest football related moment of the day for me was hearing ex-Chelsea and new Inter manager Jose Mourinho, confidently expounding on how he fully expected Liverpool to win the Premier League title this season! (BTW, Fo those not in the know, Mourinho loathes and detests Liverpool, and made this statement because he is aware of the pressure and burdeon of expectation that Liverpool/Benitez are under this year to win the league and just wanted to add to it!)

"Wherever you are in the world... whoever you are... THE TALK TENNIS FOOTBALL CLUB NEEDS YOU!!!... come and join!"

Those comments from Mourinho were pretty funny yeah. Liverpool have a great team, there's no doubt about that. Not as good as Chelsea and Man Utd but they are catching up. The thing that is stopping them though is the manager, he doesn't have what it takes to be Champions of England, stick him in Europe and he's magnificent but not for the league. Also the players don't know what it takes to be Champions, when they are up for it they are brilliant but they have, and still have, the tendency to lose the games that you need to win to be Champions.

Can you imagine them up against a team with 11 players behind the ball like Man Utd and Chelsea have to break down every week? They couldn't do it, especially towards the sharp end of the season if they are still there or there abouts.

Any Italian or Spanish fans out there? Would love to hear how your teams are looking right now before the season starts... Barca... Real... Inter AC... Juve... etc... Plus anyone really... Dutch, German, French, American - which reminds me...

I see Ruud Gullit has resigned having been coaching an LA Galaxy side that hasn't won a game in 2 months. WTF is going on out there with all that money spent/blown on Beckham?... I thought the Galaxy were meant to be like the iconic, pin-up American team?... what a mess!

Finally, I have to say exactly the same thing re Manchester City and the increasingly dire looking situation with their owner, Taksin Sinawatra (Sorry if I've spelt that wrong.) And reports here are making out Mark Hughes has threatened to quit if players don't stop being offered/sold behind his back. It really brings home all the concerns re the unregulated procedures that permit such figures to own and run football clubs.

I support Chelsea, even though I'm not english nor do I live in the UK. I am, however, living in Mexico for the semster, where I hope to find a bunch of Man City, ARSEnal and Spurs games here on TV because of Nery Castillo, Carlos Vela, and Giovanni Dos Santos are all living gods here in Mexico (especially the later two) and hopefully I'll find a good place to watch Chelsea as well.

I hope we have a good season, and we pick up atleast one more player before the window closes (If there is a god PLEASE help Chelsea sign David Villa). Bosingwa and Deco (if he can find his form) look to be great, and I hope we can do well this year. I'm also curious as to why we havent used Ivonavic at all yet we don't let him go off to Milan....Scolari probably won't use him, so why not loan him to Milan and let him get match practice?

On another related note, does anyone want to join in on a fantsy league? I have an account over on the Premier League website and I'm already part of a few leagues and perhaps someone here could set up a TT Fantsy league over on the site, or at Yahoo or ESPN or something like that? I think that would be cool...

....I'm also curious as to why we havent used Ivonavic at all yet we don't let him go off to Milan....Scolari probably won't use him, so why not loan him to Milan and let him get match practice?..

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Totally agree!

It actually looks like we're sending him off on loan for this season and Milan have the option of buying him at the end of the season which I think is crazy. He was brought in January and didn't play because of came from Russia where the season was over and he was unfit. He's the new Vidic so to let him go without even playing a single competitive game is absurd.

Okay. Time for this morning's picture... Calling all Italians!... this morning's picture for you:

If there are any of you out there, it would be great to have Juve, Roma, AC, Inter, Lazio fans, etc here on the squad. As someone who grew up with Serie A when they 1st showed it here in the UK on Channel 4 some yeas ago every Sunday afternoon - when it was probably the greatest league in the world - the days of Baresi and Baggio - I've kept up a respect and interest for the game over there, and would be interested to hear what's happening now... who the are the new young stars to look out for?... who might battle it out for the Serie A title?... who looks good in The Champion's League?... the national team now (as good as the lot above ^ ?), etc.

Okay. Time for this morning's picture... Calling all Italians!... this morning's picture for you:

If there are any of you out there, it would be great to have Juve, Roma, AC, Inter, Lazio fans, etc here on the squad. As someone who grew up with Serie A when they 1st showed it here in the UK on Channel 4 some yeas ago every Sunday afternoon - when it was probably the greatest league in the world - the days of Baresi and Baggio - I've kept up a respect and interest for the game over there, and would be interested to hear what's happening now... who the are the new young stars to look out for?... who might battle it out for the Serie A title?... who looks good in The Champion's League?... the national team now (as good as the lot above ^ ?), etc.

To be completely honest I know very little about his game. He played second fiddle to Bojan Krkic last season and didn't feature much. But what I have seen of him I've come to view him as a Ronaldinho-esque player who kind of floats between the strikers and the attacking midfielders. He's fairly quick, is a bit flashy (he was tipped as the next Ronaldinho back in his Barcelona days) and tends to try to be C. Ronaldo or Ronaldinho and fake defenders with fancy footwork. His main weakness is just that, and he tends to take too many shots. When on form, however, he's great, just watch his last game with Barcelona at the end of last season. He scored three and set up another one and just flat out dominated on the pitch.

As for the fantsy league over on the Premier League website, I just started one. Here is the league ID number:

Er, it was me enquiring about Dos Santos. Cheers for the reply. BTW, Good luck with your fantasy league venture.

All squad members,

Following on from SempreSami's example (and linking in somewhat tenuously to this morning's Italian theme - he played for a large chunk of his career at Juve; and his most infamous game was his last international against Italy). Here's a compilation of 'The King' (Platini simply called him that), the maestro they called 'Zizou', the player that if I had to vote on who was the very greatest player of recent times I think my vote would go to him - Zinedine Zidane...

^
No problem. It should be very interesting how he lines up with Modric and Bent and the rest of the strikers. I'll be watching very closely come Sunday morning. Who do you guys play against? We're home at the Bridge against Hull City, I believe (I'm probably wrong!). Interesting, however, is that you have Arsenal pretty early this season, should be a great match, and if I can't find it on Mexican TV I'll eat my own head (probably won't have to, however, the two hottest properties in Mexican football up against eachother in one of the biggest derbies in football HAS GOT to be on Mexican TV).

To EVERYONE: JOIN MY FANTSY LEAGUE!!! PLEASE ENTER THIS NUMBER ON THE PREM. LEAGUE WEBSITE!!!:

^
No problem. It should be very interesting how he lines up with Modric and Bent and the rest of the strikers. I'll be watching very closely come Sunday morning. Who do you guys play against? We're home at the Bridge against Hull City, I believe (I'm probably wrong!). Interesting, however, is that you have Arsenal pretty early this season, should be a great match, and if I can't find it on Mexican TV I'll eat my own head (probably won't have to, however, the two hottest properties in Mexican football up against eachother in one of the biggest derbies in football HAS GOT to be on Mexican TV).

To EVERYONE: JOIN MY FANTSY LEAGUE!!! PLEASE ENTER THIS NUMBER ON THE PREM. LEAGUE WEBSITE!!!:

1011500-192386

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I wish it was Hull! It's Portsmouth who are looking to be around the top 5 this year so it's a nasty one first one up

Er, it was me enquiring about Dos Santos. Cheers for the reply. BTW, Good luck with your fantasy league venture.

All squad members,

Following on from SempreSami's example (and linking in somewhat tenuously to this morning's Italian theme - he played for a large chunk of his career at Juve; and his most infamous game was his last international against Italy). Here's a compilation of 'The King' (Platini simply called him that), the maestro they called 'Zizou', the player that if I had to vote on who was the very greatest player of recent times I think my vote would go to him - Zinedine Zidane...

Well, it's all about opinions... I share your opinion of Platini, and think Eric Cantona was an iconic, inspirational, semi-genius for Man U (and he really helped bolster the standing of the Prem. Lge in my view also.) For trophies won though for club (clubs) and country (such as Champions lge and World and I think Euro Cups), Zidane still gets my vote as 'king'. Anyway, both were utterly brilliant - and actually a bit alike IMO in spirit, having sublime touch, feel, skills, etc, an eye for goal, a love of the more physical side (and a tendency to enjoy a bit of aggro! )...

To all squad members,

Do post up your club crests, crowd scene pics, fave players, funny photos, etc - this thread will only be as good as your contributions make it... and talking of funny photos... here's one who many will not miss here in England (perceived as arrogant and provocotive), and many others will (charismatic and funny.) I subscribe to the latter view (and he was a big time winner as well.) Shall be v/interesting to see what happens at Inter... annyway...

Anyway, if you want to talk football and join up, just tell me your name and your team/league, and you're in... like so:

1. Ross K... Tottenham Hotspur (English Premier League)...

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BTW, I did chuckle at the janitor comment . And I didn't at the Spurs comment:cryalthough it's common for to them play brilliant in pre-season and then ragged and crap once the real thing starts ... let's hope Ramos knows what he's doing in the Prem. league, because to your average fan the tranfers in and out doesn't make much sense thus far... growwwl!)

The pace and power is still there but the artistry, movement and creativity was mind blowing.

Portsmouth didn't play that badly as such, when we let off a bit in the second half we saw Portsmouth create some chances and looked decent. The first half though, they just weren't given the opportunity to do anything.. We were unplayable.